I. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computerized planning systems and methods, and to such systems and methods for planning demand for products, such as configurable products. More particularly, the invention relates to planning systems and methods for planning demand for a configurable product in a managed supply chain.
II. Background Information
Demand planning is used to forecast the demand for products, such as configurable products. A configurable product is a product having one or more product dependent characteristics. In demand planning, it is known to carry out aggregation and disaggregation calculations. Aggregation is a function by which key figure values on the lowest level of detail are automatically summed at run time and displayed on a high level. For example, if a forecasted demand is displayed for a region in an interactive planning screen, the forecasted demand for all of the different sales channels, product families, brands, products, and/or customers in that region is shown. This provides a consistent planning approach throughout an organization. Key figure values can be stored at the lowest level of detail. If aggregates are used, then the data may also be saved on the aggregate levels.
On the other hand, disaggregation is a function by which a key figure value on a high level is automatically broken down to the detailed level. For example, if demand is forecast in a particular region, the system instantly splits up this number among the different sales channels, product families, brands, products, customers, and so on, in this region. This function, as with aggregation, provides a consistent planning approach throughout an organization. As with aggregation, key figure values can be stored at the lowest level of detail. If aggregates are also used, then the data may also be stored on the aggregate levels.
With both the aggregation and disaggregation functions, a demand plan can be carried out on the basis of a percentage representation. It has been found, however, that conventional demand planning incorporating the aggregation and disaggregation functions suffers from one or more drawbacks. One problem is that with the aggregation and disaggregation calculation for the percentage representation implemented in the demand planning, it is not possible to work with an aggregate of more than one product in the same way as working with the aggregate of one product. It has been found that this is because the calculation logic is the same for the percentage representation and the absolute value representation. It has also been found that this problem occurs because in a planning scenario where the components of configurable products are planned, a different calculation logic has been found to be required in the percentage representation in order to work with a group of products in a desired way. In conventional demand planners until now it has been necessary to work only with a single product at a time and copy the data to each product. This is very time consuming and error-prone manual work.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to address these and other problems encountered in conventional demand planning incorporating a percentage representation.